Battle of Sendai Isle (GSWW)
As the call for war reached the ears of the great land of Kumogakure, the village prepped for battle. Standing in his office, the current and Fourth Raikage A readied himself as well. "Raikage-sama, should you be going into battle. You are the Raikage." chimed a worried advisor. "Of course I'm going out there!" he called. Giving out a sigh, the advisor began to shuffle through the papers infront of her. Pulling out a sheet and passing it to A, she coughed to get his attention. "If you are, than you should know that Kirigakure is trying to push ahead and take our half of the land on Sendai Isle. As the Raikage, you should do something about it" she said. Giving a hearty grumble, he snatched the paper and crumbled it. Channeling his Lightning natured chakra around it, he pegged it at the wall causing a very narrow hole. "Meirei!" called A slamming his fist through his desk, shattering it. "Not another one" thought the Raikage's Assistant. Appearing from a puff of smoke, the leader of the Kinkaku Force Meirei Rōga appeared. "You called, Raikage-sama?" Meirei said kneeling down the to benevolent kage. "I'm sending the Kinkaku Force, along with a group of Fourty Shinobi out to Sendai Isle. I am naming you Commander of this Mission." he said folding his arms and smirking at the shinobi before him. Lifting his head, Meirei smiled and simply said "Yes'sir". About an hour after his meeting with the Raikage, Meirei now sat upon the mast of a large boat. Several Shinobi gathered onto the boat, much to his amusement. "Seems Raikage-sama finally has trust in me." Meirei thought. Jumping down, he landed before the several shinobi and saluted them. "Some of you know me, as Leader of the Kinkaku Force- others have not even made eye contact with me. I am respectful to all, who are respectful to me. I hope you will remember me as a fond leader." he said. In unison, the group of shinobi all called "Yes Meirei-sama". Turning to an eldery man, Meirei waved his hand. "Time to depart, head out to our dock at Sendai Isle!" he called folding his arms. "Aye aye." said the old man spinning the wheel. Meanwhile, on Gunpō, several ships boarded the south coast, and were immediately intercepted by several shinobi, their forehead protectors revealing them to originating from . A tall, red-haired man descended from the middle ships, nervously trying to light up a cigarette. As the their man set foot on the island, red-haired man approached the nervous smoker, with a wide grin on his face. "Still can't handle a little boat-trip, Sakaki?", he shouted, laughing while more men came running from the mainland to help landing the weapons, supplies and men from the boats. Sakaki gave the other red-hair a stare, and eventually succeeded in lighting the cigarette. Taking a deep inhale, he calmly blew out the smoke. "Say, Murasaki, you better give me a good reason why I boarded those goddamned ships. I thought the plan was to just sneak into the capital village and take it by surprise?" Murasaki nodded, and his grin disappeared as his face grew serious. "Yes. But apparently, there's some bastard who revealed our plans to the Cloud and they're sending in some heavy stuff now. My division is light-weight, so even f we managed to survive their reinforcements, our numbers would be to small to take over the village." Murasaki's hand nervously played with the hilt of his sword, until he clenched his wrists and folded his arms before his chest. "So what have you got for me?" Sakaki picked his cigarette out of his mouth and quenched it under his foot before answering. "Some of my men, some Second Division, and a few healers. Should be enough to take over the village. Also, I got this from the Investigation Unit." Sakaki reached in a punch hanging at his left hip, and pulled out a scroll, giving it to Murasaki. He folded it open, the scar on his face deforming as wrinkles of concern appeared on his forehead. "Kūbunai, eh?" Sakaki shrugged as he lit another cigarette. "I don't know, Murasaki-san. Nobody does." Murasaki nodded, and after a few moments folded up the scroll. "Well, it appears thy're sending a guy named Meirei Rōga down here. Dangerous guy, ninjutsu and taijutsu foremost. And he possess the ." Hearing the name of the famous dōjutsu, Sakaki no longer looked to the sky, but once again reached into his pockets. "That reminds me, told me to give you this." He held out a tag, fiddled with numerous kanji and other signs. Murasaki nodded, as if he understood why Ao had given him the mysterious scrap of paper, and putted it in his pocket. "So, what do we do know?" Murasaki asked, as he yet again extinguished his cigarette. He didn't reach for another one, however. Murasaki smiled, and signed Sakaki to follow to a nearby tent. In the tent, there was table with a map spread on it, portraying the area around the islands and the upper and lower parts of the and the , respectively. Murasaki moved his hand across the map, and started explaining. "Well, according to the information of the Investigation Unit, they've set sail only recently, so it'll take them around a day to get to the island, and a couple hours to get to the capital. This gives us an advantage, but only if we succeed in conquering the capital before their reinforcements arrive. They're probably not really well-equipped for a siege, and it will be much easier fighting them off from inside the village. This means we have to act quickly, and leave within maximum two hours, so we still have enough time to conquer the village before that Meirei guy arrives. The original plan was to attack during the night, but we don't have time for that. Understood?" Sakaki nodded. Murasaki got up from the map and laughed out loud. "Wow, it's really been a while since I've been so worked up about something. This war really is serious, isn't it?" Sakaki gave him a cold stare, and marched out of the tent to gather the troops and instruct them about the plans made. Murasaki stayed behind, laughing, but also thinking about the fact that they should really organize things better in the military, two officers alone could make far more mistakes than when they were assisted by lieutenants. Already at sea, the shinobi of Kumogakure were pumped for battle. Sitting at the head of the ship, Meirei had his arms folded and was listening to his men behind him. Words like "Unsure" and "Scared" filled his ears, causing him to stand up and turn around. "I have one last statement for you all." he said walking up to a Jonin who had a worried look. "Yes Meirei-senpai?" asked the worried shinobi. "Do you trust me?" he said with a straight face. The entire crew stopped what they were doing and watched the situation unfold. Looking down at the ground, the worried shinobi clenched his fists and looked into Meire's face. "I have no details on how you lead, nor have I ever served alongside you in a mission. We come from different parts of Kumo, I'm a Medic and your a close combat sort of guy. So yes, I do not trust you." said the shinobi with a face completely different from before. Clenching his fists, the crew was unsure of how Meirei would react. The shinobi glanced and saw the smirk on Meirei's face, followed by his loud bellow of laughter. "I'm glad to hear that. I didn't want any mindless foot soldiers serving alongside me in this war. You're, no you're all entitled to your opinions and ways of doing things." he said placing his hand onto the shinobi's shoulder. "But you must remember, if we are to survive learn to trust those of your own blood. We must be stronger than the rest, Kirigakure won't know whats coming!" he chimed pumping up his troops once more. "Thank you, Meirei-senpai." muttered the shinobi before him. Nodding his head, Meirei walked to the side of the boat. "Whats the estimated time of arrival?" he asked. "We will arrive in the night, its gonna take a few hours." said the elderly captain. Glancing at the sides of his ship, he turned back to his troops. "This trip, along with the trip to the capital is quite a long journey. We need a quick way to get there." he said. "I might have a way." called a Jonin from the crowd. Stepping forward, was a tall man with spiky black hair and a solid black line going down his nose waved his hand. "Motoi-san. I didn't know you were accompanying us." Meirei said delighted that Motoi was on the team. "So, whats the idea?" Meirei called. Clapping his hands, he slammed his palm to the ground and a summoning circle appeared. A puff of smoke appeared from under the boat, and it was colossus. From the cloud of smoke, what appeared to be an island rose up and lifted the boat high up. "This can't be? can it?" Meirei called in excitement. "Whats going on? called several other Jonin on the ship. "Say hello to the Giant Island Turtle of Kumogakure!" Motoi called as the turtle lifted up its head from the water. "He swims at insanely fast speeds, and will halve our time." Motoi stated. "Amazing Motoi! Push forward to Sendai, we cannot let Kiri beat us." Meirei called. The Siege of Sanson Hours later, the forces of Kirigakure arrived at Sanson, the capital city of Gunpō. It was clear that their was something going on behind the walls of the village, most likely centering around the arrival of the hostile forces. Immediately, the Mist shinobi began to prepare their weapons and ninjutsu to smash through the walls of the village, their exact motions being covered by their trademark . Meanwhile, Murasaki instructed the members of his division, with a big smile on his face as if he was looking forward to the blood-spilling that was most likely to follow. "Well, guys, you know the deal. Sakaki and his men are gonna attack the outer defenses, and lure the shinobi in there to them, and we move in via the back to capture the village leader. We haven't got ANBU around, so do your best in being sneaky. If you come across anything dangerous while performing the mission, dispose of it rapidly and quietly. Okay? Have fun." The moment he had finished his sentence, the group of shinobi had disappeared in a haze of shadow and smoke. Murasaki relaxed, and walked calmly towards the village while taking a sip from the sake bottle at his hip. Body Flicker wasn't really his style. While Murasaki explained the mission to his ambush division, Sakaki overlooked the preparations for the siege. Three shinobi were performing the extended set of hand seals required for the Water Release: Great Dragon Bullet Technique, and a fourth was gathering extra water with a special scroll. While he lit another cigarette, Sakaki made sure he and the members of his division were battle-ready, they would move in the moment the dragon would break through the wall. The members of the Second Division would stay here and bombard the village with their long-range jutsu, and the medical-nin would take care of the wounded, as was their task. When he had finished smoking, Sakaki moved forward, his hand resting on his blade. The technique was almost ready, and it was time to kill some ugly lightning-bastards. Reaching the shoreline, east of Gunpō the Giant Turtle settled its head onto the sandy beach allowing the dozens of Kumogakure Shinobi to exit the ship onto land. "Lets move quickly, I and the Kinkaku Force will head out and intercept any incoming Mist Ninja- as a Jonin Squadron the rest of you will head out to Sanson and make sure their defenses are fortified." Meirei called fiddling with the brown bag at his waist. From it, he pulled out a scroll marked 移送. "Raikage-sama gave me this scroll, its a quick teleport right into Sanson." Meirei said handing it to Motoi. "I'll leave this in your hands Motoi." Meirei said jumping towards the mountainous cliff with about twelve others following him. Turning to the rest, Motoi undid the scroll and tossed it into the air. "Everyone! Gather closely!" he called forming a hand seal. The group of about 30 of them all made their way closer to Motoi as he slammed both hands onto the scroll which landed on the ground in front of him. A large plume of smoke appeared and transported them away. Seconds later, the group of Jonin appeared in the middle of a bustling village whom was trying their best to evacuate. "Whats going on!" called Motoi grabbing a villager by the shirt. The worried man he grabbed muttered "Shi-nobi" before breaking away and making a beeline to the crowd of villagers. "Seems the Mist have made the first move! Get ready for battle men." called Motoi withdrawing a katana from the sheath on his waist and running towards the outer gate. The giant dragon ripped through the stone wall, blowing up several houses nearby and half of the outer gate along with it. Screams of panic and hysteria arose, while Kirigakure shinobi began to pour inside the village. Sight was still troubled by the Hidden Mist Technique and the shinobi of Sanson, who were not accustomed to such conditions, were caught by surprise by the many Kirigakure ninja who suddenly appeared and slashed down their comrades. However, one of the more unwavering Sanon ninja called for order and soon the shinobi were caught in an even battle. Out of the mist, Sakaki walked out casually, along with several earth- and fire-projectiles who were being shot at the village. He eyed a Sanon-nin who had already slain multiple Kiri shinobi with his sword. Setting his own sword ablaze, he body-flickered in front of the man and with one sweep cut through his sword, clearly terrifying the man. The shinobi was about to scream when Sakaki drove the fiery sword through his abdomen, suppressing it to nothing but a pathetic whisper. Reaching the gate, Motoi as well as several other shinobi were knocked back as a torrent of water ripped through the wall. "Take cover, the Mist-nin are skilled when it comes to water." called a tall man in a Kumogakure flak jacket and a white hood. He formed a hand seal, and puckered his lips. "Wind Release: Godly Wind from the Mountains" called the shinobi releasing a steady blast of wind from his mouth that split the incoming water into two less dangerous waves. "Nice one Muka" chimed another Jonin who tilted his head to see Motoi staring off into the distance. "Motoi?" questioned the shinobi as the black haired Jonin began to head for the gate. Reaching the outer area of the gate, Motoi watched to see a red haired man standing over the burnt corpse of a Kumo ninja. Glaring at the red haired man, Motoi lifted up his blade and announced "Lightning Release: Extension of Totsuka" he called as a layer of electricity surrounded his blade. He lunged at the man, clashing his own katana against the enemies. Sakaki was still looking down at his enemy when he could feel the air current shifts due the sudden appearance of a shinobi next to him. In the blink of an eye, he had moved his sword to a vertical position across his back, holding off the attacker with little effort. He pushed him back and got in a more suitable position, his head hanging lazy above his left shoulder. As always, he had bee smoking a cigarette, but a sudden water projectile had doused it, and soaked his clothes. However, it could be noticed that the drops evaporated almost instantly when they hit the ground, sizzling violently when they came close to the blade that was pointing at the earth. "Impressive. You and your blade managed to survive the touch of my sword. Not many man are able to rightfully claim that." He twirled the heavy blade in his hand, making it seem like it was almost weightless. "Soraya!" he yelled at a black-hared woman, who had just struck down a Kumo-nin with the kunai in her hand. Her head flickered from Sakaki to the man he was pointing at. "You take down that guy." Soraya nodded and performed several hand seals. " !" She yelled, shooting the fire balls at the wind-using shinobi. Sakaki averted his gaze, back at his opponent. "You sure got guts, choosing a swordsmen with the leader of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist." Sakaki sighed. "Well, let's get this over with." He grasped his blade and took a step forward, before disappearing in a flash of black, and reappeared at Motoi's left side, aiming a strike at his lower hip. Jumping back, Motoi felt the heat emitting from the blade char the appendages of his clothing. He skidded back, landing on one knee. Quickly pulling out a scroll, he dropped it to the ground and slammed down his palm. " " Motoi called spinning the scroll around him. His image became distorted as hundreds of sickle's, kunai, shuriken and tanto flew out towards Sakaki. In the distance, the Fire technique began to flare across the area sweeping over Muka. Seemingly charred, Muka appeared up in the air and released the same technique he did before. Wind poured down onto the area, pushing him farther up. Standing in the distance was another Kumo ninja Satori. Casting a genjutsu, he gave the appearance that Muka was charred by the technique. "Don't underestimate us Cloud-ninja." chimed Satori quite comically. Fending off some of the weapons his blade, Sakaki quickly resorted to another technique as he could feel the one's he couldn't divert cut him at various points of his body. Performing a quick set of hand seals, he putted his right hand in a half-tiger seal under his mouth and shot a giant crucifix made of flames towards the weapons, preventing most of them to hit any vital parts. The flaming cross continued it's way towards Motoi, and Sakaki made another set of hand seals, but before he could do anything else, a voice cracked through the receiver in his ear. Sakaki eased his position, quenched the flames on his blade and sheathed it. "It seems this battle ends here. I must not let get pride get in the way of our mission." With that being said, he appeared next to Soraya and held out an outstretched to block her path. "Retreat and take care of that.", he said, pointing to a large gash on her left upper leg. Soraya nodded and was going to take off, but was stopped by Satori. Before the latter could do anything, however, Sakaki was beside him, unsheathing his blade partially to throw the handle into his stomach. Satori let out a hoarse yell and fell to the ground, alive but in pain. Soraya nodded, her eyes slightly widened by the happenings of just now, and disappeared. With another glare in Motoi's direction, Sakaki was also gone, leaving the three Kumo-nin alone for a moment. But this peace was soon interrupted as another group of Hidden Mist warriors cleaved their way through the first line of defending shinobi and started attacking the trio. The Abduction Meanwhile, the reason Sakaki had been called away was observing a unit of twenty shinobi standing in front of the city hall, where the village leader was hiding. Murasaki looked behind for a moment as Sakaki appeared soundlessly behind him, and then looked back to the ninja group. Without even a question from Sakaki's side, Murasaki started to sketch the situation. "You see those ninja down there? they're guarding the leader of this craphole village. I would love to take them out, but I want to keep our plan of taking the village leader hostage a secret as long as possible. could you and your guys cause some commotion? Ya know, explosions and stuff." Sakaki nodded, and without further questions wanted to leave. But then he stopped, and slowly took out the cigarette he had lit just before he came here. It was frozen solid. He looked down at Murasaki over his shoulder. "Behave yourself." Murasaki grinned and reached for his sake bottle as Sakaki flickered away. "Sorry. It's been a while since I've had so much fun." Fending off the large amount of Mist shinobi, Motoi lifted up his blade allowing it to gather with electricity. Jumping forward, he slammed the blade through the chest of one Mist shinobi and threw an exploding tag tied to a kunai at the shinobi to the left. Jumping back, he former a hand seal as his feet hit the ground. "Earth Release: Earth Style Wall" he exclaimed as he spit what appeared to be a muddy substance at his feet. Following this, a wall rose up mitigating the explosion of the kunai bomb. Watching onward, he saw as multiple Mist shinobi began to initiate a conjoined Water Release technique. In unison, the group exhaled a blast of water in the form of a concentrated jet that flew straight for Motoi. Piercing his Earth wall, he braced for impact. Suddenly, the water fell to the ground no longer carrying the force it had before. A tall shinobi appeared from nowhere, his hands aglow with blue chakra. "Motoi-san are you alright?" he asked withdrawing a kunai from his satchel. He placed one hand onto the remnants of the Earth Wall, and his hand began to glow again. The wall crumbled before him, but he seemed to be stronger. "I'll push them back, you take Satori and Muka and get back into the village. There are several other fights going on in there." called the man. "Thank you Sannan." Motoi said faintly as he jumped back into the village. Muka and Satori followed closely glancing back as the several Mist shinobi charged towards Sannan. As the battle raged, a small group of individuals watched the spectacle from a distance. Mostly invisible through the Hidden Mist Technique, they crept about the scene, taking note of the attack patterns and progress of the conflict. The leader, Haruka, concentrated solely on detecting hidden movements. Lacking the eyesight of her companions, the kunoichi could only resort to using touch and sound to know her way around. Because of this, her other senses were keener than most. They were on an assignment for the Yorudō, and Haruka gave her team strict orders to avoid getting involved in the conflict. One of Haruka's companions, using a telescope, pointed into the village. He was a fresh recruit, though experienced from previous training within one of the hidden villages. "Sakaki Yorukura." Another looked to the ninja with an incredulous look on his face. "You got to be kidding me." The first shook his head. "He's here." None of them had the kenjutsu skills that Sakaki Yorukura possessed. Not even the Yorudō officers could match him in a pure sword fight. Despite this turn of events, the Yorudō agents kept quiet; they watched and monitored the area around them, ready to relocate in the case that the battle spills dangerously close by. Sakaki and his men were hiding behind a weapon storage near the city hall, waiting for Murasaki's signal to start some commotion. Sakaki reached deep into his pockets for another cigarette, but when he touched the package, he could feel the thin layer of ice and silently cursed Murasaki. because he didn't had another package, he took out his lighter and started to play with it, flipping the flame on and off while his men checked their gears or looked out for Kumo-nin. But nearly all of them were at the outer wall, fighting and the others hadn't stayed so deep done the city, except the collection of guards standing before the building of course. Even then, the "distraction" Sakaki was going to cause would not only draw out the guards from their position, but would likely also lure some shinobi to the city hall. The ambush team had to act quickly. Sakaki was woken up from his musings by the trademark screech of a lake owl, a bird that had petered out long ago, but was now regularly used by the shinobi of Kirigakure. Knowing it was Murasaki's sign, he stopped his tic of flipping his lighter on and off for a moment, leaving the clear flame burning. He threw the lighter up, and quickly performed three hand seals. When he had finished, the lighter was already on it's way to the ground, and the moment if floated before his chest, he stretched out his palm and fired a massive wave of fire from the lighter's tiny flame, which made it way to the weapons stocked up in the storage, more especially the explosives. What followed was an enormous explosion, but he and his group were protected by a previously set up barrier to avoid injury. The explosion launched a giant, flower-like fireball into the air, obviously visible even by the Second Division members outside the village, who were still fighting the Kumo-nin with their long-range jutsu. Murasaki acted as soon as the explosion began, and so did the other members of the Fourth Division. Around half of the guards had already left of to check on the reason behind the explosion, and the other ten were wavering at their place, not knowing what to do in this position. This made them incautious, and the Kiri-nin took advantage of that. Nine shuriken flew out of a dark alley, in pars of three, and tangled up around the necks of three guards with the string wires connected to them. Because the three shinobi were on the far left side, and everybody had been looking to the right, in the direction of the explosion, no one noticed, and while the string wire prevented them of screaming, they were reeled in and killed silently. However, when one guard looked back and saw that there were three of his comrades missing, he yelled for the others, and they got in a circle position, pointing their swords and spears at the walls before them, at the unseen enemy. But they were all shaking, as they were all trained for fighting on the battlefield, were your enemy was clearly visible and there was no tricky fog like now. Then, suddenly, a kunai sprung out of the mist and landed perfectly between the seven remaining guards. They turned around slowly and looked at it in confusion, moments later realizing their was an exploding tag attached to it. Immediately, they scattered, breaking the circle, and shielded their eyes from the splinters and rubble flying from the explosion. It was in that moment that hell burst loose, and in the first seven seconds three of them had died. The first was quite a gruesome sight, another exploding-tag-equipped kunai had drove it self into his left shoulder, blowing up half of his body along with it. The second one, who had positioned himself against a wall to secure his back, looked down half-surprised to a sword sticking from his chest as he found out the wall was nothing but an illusion. The third had been wrapped up in around his chest and both of his arms, followed by an electric current flowing through his body. The sound of electricity and his screams faded away as the four remaining stood back-to-back in the center of the massacre, their hands trembling like leaves in the wind. Eventually, in the murdering silence that followed, one dropped his spear and ran away, screaming loudly for a second before he was pinned down by a rain of shuriken out of the window of a nearby window. Out of the mist, a scarred, red-haired demon appeared, or so it appeared to the remaining members of the guard. Their morale was lowered even further by the screams of their other comrades, now facing of against Sakaki and his group. The man was surrounded by what appeared to be a rally of frozen raindrops, circling around him like electrons around a nucleus. With a smirk on his part, the frozen drops flew at them like bullets, piercing their chests, heads and waist like butter. The three fell down, but before they could even hit the ground, several members of the Division appeared and catched them, dumping them in the dark alley along with the other bodies, and then proceeding to clean up the mess. Murasaki nodded approvingly, and pulled out his sword. Walking to the giant locked doors of the hall, he moved his sword closer to the lock slowly, his eyebrows pulled together as if he was concentrating really hard. Before the sword could even touch the lock, it sprang open, and Murasaki sheathed his blade in satisfaction. Several other shinobi followed him into the building, as it wasn't likely the village leader was going to be there unprotected. Inside the village leaders office, several Kumogakure ANBU Black Ops attired men stood around him in a circle. One of them, slowly crept towards the wall opposite of the desk where the leader sat. "It seems we have company..." he quietly said slowly withdrawing a tanto from his waist. "Wait-" chimed another ANBU Black Ops members, this one wearing a white cloak. "We must get the 'leader' out of here" he said pointing to the man behind a black curtain. Pulling out a scroll, he quickly undid it and dropped it to the floor. "You know what to do." he said forming a hand seal causing him, and the Village Leader to disappear. Glancing down at his hands, the third and last ANBU in the room seemed to be teary eyed. "For Kumo." he quietly muttered forming a hand seal. His appearance changed, matching the Village Leader near perfect. He quickly made his way behind the curtain, and watched as the red haired man burst through and slaughter the first ANBU. He saw death creep upon him, his final moments running through his mind thousands of times over. In the distance, Meirei stood over the unconscious bodies of several Kiri-nin. Several other shinobi behind him, seemed eager and ready for battle. "Byakugan." chimed Meirei watching out into the distance. Through the one Byakugan eye he had, he saw the current state of the village. "Men, quickly- towards Sanon it seems they need our assistance." he called as the several shinobi behind him disappeared in an instant. Turning his head, Meirei spotted out several other powerful chakra sources. These sources are something he would be unfamiliar with, and unsure of. Pondering the situation, he quickly withdrew a scroll and slammed his hand to it. "Summoning Technique: Hawk" he called as a large red hawk, about the size of a child appeared from the smoke. "Omoikane-dono, please check upon our guests" Meirei called jumping away. The hawk flapped its wings and flew off towards the chakra source. As the four Yorudō agents continued to observe the area, one of them, who was keeping watch for activity that could detect their position, perked up to a sound that was out of the norm. He looked about, seeking out the source of the noise. Haruka also was alert, having heard the sound more clearly than her companion. "A scout. Time to go." They nodded to Haruka, quickly retreating into the thicker parts of the mist, though it has been slowly retreating since the start of the battle. The agents split up as they approached shrubbery, taking cover in the environment to break up their forms. It would take very close scrutiny to detect the agents from a distance, especially with the mist hanging about them. Confident that they would not be detected, Haruka and the others waited for the scout to pass by. Change of Plans The second ANBU was down in minutes, screaming loudly as Murasaki's blade drove a hole through him, even though the blade never touched his skin. He grinned and sheathed his blade, as one of his man ran to the village leader and locked his arms behind his back. Many of the men were already cheering, glad their mission had been carried correctly. But Murasaki suddenly held up his arm, causing the rumor to silence. Reaching into his pocket, he digged up the mysterious paper tag he received from Sakaki on behalf of Ao. As he walked towards the village leader, close observers could note that the tag was actually made up of two seals sticked together. When he stood in front of the leader, Murasaki violently pushes the tag on the ladder's chest, causing him to lose his breath. A few seconds, nothing happened. But then, the leader's appearance suddenly began to morph and shift, eventually revealing the ANBU member's appearance again. Murasaki growled, and with one angry jerk pulled one of the seals of the tag, causing an electrical current to flow from the one still attached to the ANBU, shocking him to death. Plan A hadn't worked, and they had suffered more than enough numbers. The latter didn't irritate Murasaki so much, however, he was still from the age of the "Bloody Mist". "What now?" One of his underlings asked. Murasaki reached for his sake bottle, took a large sip, and quickly his anger was replaced by his common laid-backness. "Well, the leader has escaped, and we know that. But the people on the outside don't." He kicked the now-death ANBU with the point of his foot. "Disguise him again. Change his appearance, his chakra signature, everything... We'll tell them their leader is dead, and after I've cleaned up that Meirei-guy, we'll give them the chance to leave peacefully, or ya know, die eh." He laughed and turned around, while his men began to morph the fallen ANBU once again into the village leader. Before he set off to Meirei, he attached the second seal to his own chest, which caused his chakra signature to completely fade out, and protected him from all sorts of spying eyes. While he couldn't affect others while being this truly invisible, it would allow him to sneak up on to the Byakugan, just close enough for the kill. Jumping from tree to tree towards the village, Meirei was busy deducing a plan. He quickly withdrew a kunai from its holster and stopped dead at a tree branch. He stabbed the tree next to him, and formed a hand seal activating his Byakugan. Scanning the area, he kept his sights on the village. Focusing in, he would have his eyes centered towards the main gate where a familiar chakra source laid nearly dead. Lifting his head, he would see much more carnage in the village. The Mist had the upper hand, he wasn't sent to Sendai with enough troops. An army of 40 wasn't enough for the amount of shinobi the Mist prepared. Seconds later, his Bird Summon quickly flew next to him and landed onto his shoulder. "Meirei, the chakra signatures seem to have moved away." Omoikane said pecking at his wing. "Forget about them, we'll tend to them later." Meirei said turning back to the kunai. He quickly tied what appeared to be a seal to the kunai's handle and began to head towards the village. Sasaki stood in the middle of the square, heavily panting and covered in blood. The ground around him was covered with bodies, sporting both the Kumo and Kiri hitai-ate. The ninja that had responded to the explosion had been of surprisingly high level, and they had suffered more casualties than expected. And even then, some of the Lightning shinobi still managed to run away. Sheathing his blade, he took a deep breath and began to run in a steady tempo to the breach in the wall, to check on his men. Meanwhile Murasaki, invisible to any eye in the village, moved with caution through the battlefield, maneuvering himself between the dead bodies and ongoing battles, while still looking out for Meirei or to pick up tips about his position from a random conversation he stumbled across. Until now, he had been out of luck, so he continued his search. Entering the village from the opposite side, Meirei pushed through the crowd at the gates and glanced around. Less than 15 Cloud Shinobi remained, including his own Kinkaku Force. He quickly withdrew a scroll whistled, causing Omoikane to fly down from the skies. "Take this to the Village." he said with a stern face. "Got'cha" chimed Omoikane grabbing the scroll and flying away. Moving into the village, he felt a sudden surge of chakra, a chakra source that felt very fiery. In the distance, he was able to spot out the deep red hair of a man along with a trail of smoke to follow. Sasaki made his way through the village quickly, slashing down any Kumo-nin unlucky enough to be in his way. He had almost reached the gate when he felt an alarming source of chakra coming from the opposite direction, possibly belonging to a very powerful shinobi. He threw his cigarette to the side, and unsheathed his sword which almost immediately erupted in a blazing storm of fire. He was gonna make short work of this, he had to check their status and make up a strategy based on the current positions of his men. Sensing the rise in chakra, Meirei formed a hand seal and his eye began to glow. "Byakugan." he chimed glancing around. He saw a fiery source of chakra walking towards him in the distance. "I don't have time for this..." he sneered forming another hand seal. He disappeared with a flash of lightning and reappeared above the chakra source. "Pile Driving Elbow!" he called flying down, elbow out at the man. For any normal man, the power and speed behind that strike would be fatal, instantly. Even one of the greatest kenjutsu master wouldn't have the reflexes to react in time. But Sasaki wasn't one of the greatest. He was the greatest. In a flash, his sword was positioned in the tiny space that separated him and Meirei. His fire-strengthened sword blocked the impact of the lightning strike, and with a flick of his hand he forced the man back. It was impressive he had survived contact with his blazing sword, meaning his lightning taijutsu must be very strong. Sasaki prepared to charge forward, but suddenly a cold wind blew from behind him, sending down chills from his spine. Hesitating for a moment, he resumed his attack after a quick glance backwards. After landing onto the ground, Meirei watched the opponent before him shift his eyes. In a seconds notice, he appeared in front of the man and grasped him by the neck. "Choke Slam." he called attempting to grasp down on the man's neck. The speed behind that attack was to great, even for Sasaki. The asphalt hit him hard in the face, but a second after he touched it, he managed to escape Meirei's grip. Moving behind him in order to attack, he suddenly felt a cold chill, as a unexpected breeze doused the flames on his blade. Impossible. Almost nothing could extinguish his blade's flames. Nothing but... He looked down, as the thin layer of water that rested on the ground froze instantly, in a moment's notice. The layer of frost also appeared on the metal of his sword, and he had just time to jump on a nearby building when a wave of supercooled air roared through the street, freezing anything in it's way. At the other end of the street, Murasaki was standing, the seal lying next to him on the ground and a wide, confident smile on his face. Category:KingBarragan Category:Waterkai